Wartime catalyst and postwar reaction: The making of the United States synthetic organic chemicals industry, 1910--1930

At the outbreak of World War I, the United States relied on Germany for supplies of synthetic organic chemicals--dyes, pharmaceuticals, and certain ingredients for high explosives. The war disrupted trade with Germany, creating severe shortages in the United States, and American manufacturers strove to establish a domestic industry in the war-protected market. Fearful that the end of the war would bring a resumption of German imports and drive the nascent American industry out of business, key representatives from industry and government designed and implemented an industrial policy, consisting of a collection of diverse measures, to promote the development of a domestic synthetic organic chemicals industry. This dissertation provides a historical perspective to contemporary debates about industrial policy, and also addresses issues in the historical literature on industrialization and in the history of technology, particularly regarding the transfer of technology.;Several government agencies in World War I and the 1920s designed promotional policies. Explosives and poison gases engaged the military in 1917 and 1918. The Department of Commerce and U.S. Tariff Commission collected and distributed market information about synthetic organics. To protect the American market, Congress passed tariffs in 1916 and 1922, and the Department of State restricted the importation of German reparations dyes. Partly because of anti-German sentiment, the war also spurred passage of the Trading-with-the-Enemy Act, which permitted A. Mitchell Palmer and Francis P. Garvan in the Office of Alien Property to confiscate German real and intellectual property and to investigate American importers affiliated with German companies. Garvan also orchestrated the formation of the Chemical Foundation to administer confiscated patents.;Du Pont, Allied Chemical, and several smaller companies undertook the manufacture of the synthetic organics, aided by their industrial research programs. Through trade associations, the American Dyes Institute and the Synthetic Organic Chemicals Manufacturers' Association, the industry aggressively lobbied Congress. Professional chemists in the American Chemical Society, such as Charles H. Herty, became stalwart advocates of a domestic industry, and academic chemistry provided trained researchers and consultants to the industry. Chemists, industry, and government cooperated through the National Research Council to promote research that benefited the industry.